After Spiegel published details of the Wikileaks' diplomatic cable cache early, the New York Times has also gone live with some coverage. It reports that the documents amount to a 'huge sampling' of daily traffic between the U.S. State Department and embassies abroad. Among the revelations:
• There is a secret standoff with Pakistan over highly enriched uranium, which the U.S. fears could be 'diverted' to build 'illicit' nuclear weapons.
• There's a plan for unifying Korea after the North collapses, and China's in on it.
• Guantanamo Bay's closure is mired in shifty cash deals with foreign governments to take prisoners. Also, the Afghan government is corrupt, plus ca change.
• Hacking! The Chinese government has owned Google, the Dalai Lama, "American businesses," and more!
• Saudi Arabia pays for the terrorism and Qatar sucks at counterterrorism.
• Our spies have learned that Vladimir Putin and Silvio Berlusconi have some kind of weird bromance going on involving 'lavish gifts' and 'lucrative energy contracts.' Silvio is essentially acting as Putin's man in the EU.
• His power in Russia is absolute, but the bureaucracy there is so epic it allows Putin to be 'ignored.'
• The U.S.is failing to prevent Syria arming Hezbollah.
• The U.S. 'warned' Germany not to arrest CIA agents who bungled a rendition and kidnapped an innocent German citizen.
Cables@the NYT

Many more cables name diplomatsâ€™ confidential sources, from foreign legislators and military officers to human rights activists and journalists, often with a warning to Washington: â€œPlease protectâ€ or â€œStrictly protect.â€

This just seems wrong to me. Everyone, even government employees need to have candid outlets that are not made public so that can discuss ideas and observations without the threat of public misunderstanding.

Yes, ultimate secrecy is not a good thing, but every organization has good reasons for being secretive

…even Boing Boing

To quote your blog’s own reasons for deleting posts pertaining to Violet Blue:

“We hope youâ€™ll respect our choice to keep the reasons behind this private. We do understand the confusion this caused for some, especially since we fight hard for openness and transparency. We were trying to do the right thing quietly and respectfully, without embarrassing the parties involved.”

These cables, which are obviously illegally obtained, will be taken grossly out of context in some circumstances and people may lose lives because it.

This just seems wrong to me. Everyone, even government employees need to have candid outlets that are not made public so that can discuss ideas and observations without the threat of public misunderstanding.

Yes, ultimate secrecy is not a good thing, but every organization has good reasons for being secretive

…even Boing Boing

Can we really be so naÃ¯ve after the Bush invasions? Leaks of a similar magnitude during the buildup might have saved a lot of lives. And it really isn’t fair to compare Boing Boing with a government. Boing Boing has never used force to settle disputes nor can it compel people to follow orders. Reading Boing Boing is optional, following government orders, or paying for the government to kill people is not.

These cables, which are obviously illegally obtained, will be taken grossly out of context in some circumstances and people may lose lives because it.

Unlikely. None were classified higher than secret. They are likely to embarass the US, but not endanger agents in the field.

Despite increasing attention and dissemination on Twitter, #wikileaks and #cablegate are still being excluded from twitter’s trending lists. 3rd party metrics have #wikileaks accounting for a full 2% of twitter traffic, whereas twitter itself seems to think that “LatinAmericaNeedsBiebs” is much more important.

China being “in” on Korean unification means that they’ve been consulted about it, not that there is an agreed plan, if the NYT summary is to be believed. It would be near-revolutionary if there was an agreed plan between the US, South Korea, and China, and North Korea’s leadership bunker would not be a happy place upon learning of this.

Why does that shock you? Saudi Arabia has been in competition with Iran over oil exports and control of the Arab world for most of the 20th century and I’m pretty sure they have pressured the US and BP to mess with Iran’s affairs before, usually with sanctions.

Sunnis vs. Shiites. Those guys have been really mad at each other for 1400 years give or take.

For Saudi Arabia it makes sense: “yes America, please bomb our Persian minority schism adversaries so that their oil reserves will never compete with ours.” “Thanks for the heads up House of Saud, that Ahmadinejad fellow is really quite annoying, maybe we will. . .keep that crude flowing, boys!”

As this whole thing unfolds and I read the reports/some documents, my world view is changing. Makes me want to move to some little central or south american country and live out my remaining 20-25 years writing short stories and exploring myan ruins.

“There’s a plan for unifying Korea after the North collapses, and China’s in on it.”

Where does the linked article say this? There’s a mention there of America and South Korea discussing what to do in the event of the collapse of the North, including how they would deal with China, but I see no mention of China being “in on it”. Is this statement sourced from the cables themselves, or is it just a strange interpretation of the linked article?

“Vladlimir Putin & Silvio Berlusconi have some kind of weird bromance going on”. I’m sure Nicolas Sarkozy wanted to be part of the club but they refused him because they don’t accept midgets. Hence his jealousy crisis & the increase of fascism in his homeland security politics, trying to prove he can be worse than them.

Haha yes, Putin also puts tigers to sleep & teach the world how to do judo on DVD. Thanks for the information about these people’s height. I think that sometimes in France we tend to forget that Europe has other Naboleons (pun on word, nabot meaning dwarf) as well.